happily ever after
by sleepless-royalty
Summary: "In a world of blonde princesses and firey dragons and fierce female warriors with raven-haired princes waiting in towers, of course the commoner never wins. - levy-centric, natsu&lucy"


**This was supposed to just be a one-sided NaLe one-shot but t snowballed into something much more broad. I actually kinda like it XD I hope you enjoy my horrible attempt at angst.**

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" _In a world of blonde princesses and firey dragons and fierce female warriors with raven-haired princes waiting in towers, of course the commoner never wins. - levy-centric, natsu &lucy"_

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Maybe she was just bitter because her fairy tale romance hadn't played out the way she had hoped.

Or maybe she was finally realizing the real fairy tale wasn't a _fairy tale_. It was a tale of princesses and dragons and female warriors and princes who watched from towers. And she was but a lady-in-waiting, watching as a red hot, passionate dragon stole the very princess she waited upon and took her hopes and dreams away from her.

It wasn't as though she didn't love Gajeel, she did, she truly did. And confessions have never been worse. (Who confesses on their _deathbed_? The moron.) For a time, she was happy, before the spark faded, and she was back to counting chapters before she made it to the plot twist and - surprise! - finally finds her happy ending.

And then she berates herself because daydreaming was Lu-chan's thing and heaven forbid she be any more like her best friend than she already was. So she counts down the days and hums herself to sleep, pretending to be the princess all of her friends seemed to be - with the exception of Erza, of course.

But neither Jet nor Droy were princely beings, and maybe she preferred dragons.

So she sets out to find one - and Sting is her newest best friend, and Rogue and Wendy were the newest members of her recently formed book club. Erik comes down every Thursday for tea and Kinana, and Laxus is like a house cat, slinking about Fairy Hill's entrance to scare off her (nonexistent) suitors and enemies.

(Gajeel keeps his distance, becoming cozier with _Laki Olietta_ ,of all people, and Natsu is always glued to Lu-chan's side.)

None of them are particularly _hers_ though, especially with how Laxus gazes at Mirajane and Sting brightens at the sight of Yukino and Rogue smiles at Minerva more than he does with even Sting.

Then, in the strangest of epiphanies, Levy realizes that the dragon that had somehow wormed his way into her heart and stayed there was not Gajeel, was not Sting, was not any of them.

Somewhere along the way, she fell for the cheeky grins and impulsive nature and his incomparable loyalty and the fact that he was just so _real_ in the most immature way possible. She fell for the boy who she never had the courage to talk to, admired from a distance.

She fell for his pink hair and toothy smile, _but he wasn't hers_.

(So she spends the night curled up into Droy's chest, sobbing, while Sting and Jet violently cuss out the boy who broke her heart, swearing to destroy him.)

(She smiles in response, quickly assuring them that it won't be necessary: she doubts that he recognizes that she even exists.)

She buries herself in novels and teasing Laxus about Freed and Mirajane - and _however would he choose?_ \- and rolling her eyes at Cana's drunk antics. She builds her walls as she breaks down Lucy's, and matchmakes a cold, raven-haired prince stuck in a tower and his feminine knight in her spare time. She bears the weight of the world, her friends' worlds, on her shoulders and smiles throughout.

But her shadow dragon notices her plights and comforts her at night before bed as she curses herself for giving him her lacrima communication device's number.

Erik still comes over for tea and occasionally Laxus joins and sometimes she holds a party full of dragon slayers and her and she loves it.

(That is, until Jet and Droy come crashing in, wailing in fear because _the demon Erza herself_ caught wind of a party with _boys_ in it at Fairy Hills.)

And then she's happy in her little Fairy Tale world, even though her princess and her dragon are _together_ -together and her old dragon refuses to look her in the eye, because who needs two more of them when she already had five?

And then all at once, Jet and Droy start recognizing their growing feelings for each other, and so Levy can never spend time with the both of them without feeling like a third wheel.

But that's okay, because Levy still has her dragons.

Until Laxus gets married and Master kicks the bucket, and Laxus and Mirajane Dreyer take over the guild in the most pleasant way possible.

But then Sting and Yukino, and Rogue and Minerva have a double wedding and leave for a while only to come back, drunk on love and crumbling under Sabertooth's paperwork, and they stop by so few times she sometimes forgets what they sound like. And Wendy is an adult now, so she's off saving lives and earning her pay and planning _her_ wedding with her sky god slayer fiancée.

Erik stops coming completely, spending his days catching up with Kinana and kissing her and loving her into a blissful state of peace.

Then Levy realizes _her fairy tale is ending_ , and she runs over to Lu-chan's to see Natsu sitting on one knee, holding a velvet box with a glittering symbol of eternal love and loyalty, and Lu-chan is crying and smiling. So she leaves them to have their moment, and her already shattered dreams are ground into dust. When she gets home, she cries because her heartbreak _still stings_ and she _still loves him_.

So that night she prays to her fairy godmother and fades into fairy dust, her breath fading and her last words unheard.

(Sometimes, Lucy could hear her laugh in the wind as she sobbed for her friend.)

Because, in a world of blonde princesses and firey dragons and fierce female warriors with raven-haired princes waiting in towers, of course the commoner never wins.

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 **Don't worry, I don't understand Levy's death either.**


End file.
